Fitness Business Podcast: Leadership, Innovation, and Profit · Justin Tamsett | Fitness Business Leader

Use Improv to Enhance Sales Skills and Build Stronger Client Relationships (with Eric Tepper and Mary DeMichele): Episode 532

·45 min·3 clips

Eric Tepper shows how “yes and” changes a membership-cancellation conversation with a billed-for-six-months member.

1. Fitness Business Podcast episode 532 focuses on Eric Tepper and Mary D. Michelle using improv to improve sales, leadership, and service in fitness businesses. 2. Justin Tamsit hosts the conversation, Eric Tepper is the founder of Selling Wellness, and Mary D. Michelle teaches improv and references research on its effects. 3. The episode asks whether a single improv tool, “yes and,” can help staff handle objections, listen better, and build stronger client relationships. 4. Eric says he has worked with 27 brands and more than 160 locations since launching Selling Wellness a little over two years ago. 5. He says the studios he works with one-on-one saw growth in revenue within 90 days, and he uses that as proof that simple sales strategies can work. 6. Mary says she moved from high school teaching into theater and acting, then into improv classes, short-form comedy, and later teaching in medical schools, law schools, mental health, and law enforcement. 7. She says improv is not about being on stage and making people laugh, but about becoming a better communicator and handling uncertainty. 8. Mary says people are “wired for social connection,” yet technology encourages shouting louder instead of listening. 9. She argues that improv’s first discipline is listening, because “there’s no way to move forward in improv unless you listen every moment.” 10. Mary says she boiled improv down to one rule after a CEO asked her for the process, and that rule is “yes and.” 11. She says “yes” creates enough safety for the brain to come back online, while “and” adds uncertainty that keeps people present and mindful. 12. Eric links that idea to stress responses, saying challenged conversations can trigger fight, flight, freeze, or please. 13. Mary says brain research showed that “yes and” calms the stress response and lights up the creative part of the brain. 14. She also says improv can quiet judgment rather than erase it, which lets people move forward without getting locked up. 15. In a word-building exercise about “new and improved runners,” the pair demonstrates how each “yes” adds another layer without breaking the scene. 16. In a second exercise using the word “weight loss,” they show that listening carefully is required because each next word depends on the previous one. 17. Eric then role-plays a cancellation objection from a member who has been billed for six months, and he answers by acknowledging the member’s frustration instead of arguing. 18. The conversation also covers a buying objection, where Eric reframes price resistance as a chance to partner with the prospect rather than overcome them. 19. The interview is conversational, practical, and demo-driven, with Justin pushing for live examples from both guests. 20. Listeners who manage sales teams, member service, or frontline fitness staff will get the most from this episode, while people looking for advanced comedy theory may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical look at how improv can sharpen sales, leadership, and service conversations.

This episode treats improv as a usable training tool for sales, leadership, and service, with Justin Tamsit guiding the talk toward club-level situations.

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Why you'd press play

Use improv to make sales, leadership, and member conversations feel more natural.

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